KARACHI: Madni Siddiqui, Provincial Head, Balochistan Region, SSGC has said that the Company is following the Government of Pakistan’s directives of installing around 30 LPG-Air Mix plants in the far flung areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Mr. Siddiqui explained that for ensuring gas to those areas that are far off from SSGC’s distribution grid, already three LPG-Air Mix or Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) plants are currently operational in Gwadar, Noshki and Surab in Balochistan and work on two more plants in Awaran and Bela is nearly completion.

Mr. Siddiqui said this while walking to the media persons at a dinner hosted in honour of the media fraternity of Balochistan region at Serena Hotel, Quetta. The dinner was part of SSGC’s Winter Safety Awareness Campaign launched every winter to propagate messages to the general public about safe use of gas and menace of gas theft.

The Company’s provincial head said that providing gas to the entire Balochistan is among the top priorities of SSGC. He further added that so far 14 districts of the province have been provided natural gas and work is in full throttle to distribute it to other districts too. Mr. Siddiqui assured the audience that if Company’s employees are caught stealing gas they will not be spared and law will take its course on them. On the subject of Winter Safety Awareness campaign that stresses on safe use of gas-fired appliances, Mr. Siddiqui said that before this yearly Campaign intensified, on average 20 deaths used to be recorded in Balochistan region during winter times. Now primarily due to this mass campaign, the number of fatalities has been reduced to five on average, he said. He added that SSGC will not rest till the number of fatalities comes to zero.

Shahbaz Islam, Head of Corporate Communications, SSGC reiterated that while the Company is running a campaign to rein in gas thieves, true success will come when the media, clerics, general public and other stakeholders whole heartedly start supporting the gas utility in its mission. Mr. Islam said that gas is Pakistan’s lifeline and it is incumbent on every citizen of the country to play his role in saving it for the future generations.

In his speech, Mr. Raza-ur-Rehman, President, Quetta Press Club said that still a lot of places in Balochistan have not yet got the facility of natural gas with the result that a sense of deprivation has been created among the people of the province. He hoped that SSGC would continue to focus on providing gas to a maximum number of areas in the province. Mr. Rehman asked the SSGC management to look into the issue of wrong billing in Balochistan.

Khalid Ahmed, President Balochistan Union of Journalists expressed his happiness at the fact that the number of deaths and injuries from callous use of gas-fired appliances have dipped sharply and credited SSGC for this positive development. He hoped that SSGC will continue to give priority to far flung areas of Balochistan by providing them with natural gas.

In their speeches, local clerics including Maulana Anwar-ul-Haq Haqqani and Professor Arshad Rashid stressed that gas is not just a rare natural resource but inarguably the best and most affordable fuel and as conscientious citizens we must do everything we can do to use it responsibly and ethically.